Monday, August 18, 2008

China

Here is a list of the largest cities in China with over one million inhabitants without a branch or missionaries. No proselyting occurs in China and only foreigners meet in branches for worship services.

13 comments:

of note is that chinese can also attend meetings, not just foreigners. the rule is that they cannot intermingle with foreigners though. that is why beijing 3rd branch is actually all chinese, no foreigners allowed. there is still no proselyting in china, but many become members from their time living abroad then return home.

of course this is hard for chinese to accomplish, in the sense that many of the 30+ towns that have meeting groups likely do not have a separate arrangement that enables them to attend. but in some cities it is possible and happens.

I live in Qingdao. We have an awesome international branch here. About 40 members of which half are Korean, half are foreign teachers at universities here that cooperate with BYU. We also have a Chinese sub-branch, which, as foreigners we are not allowed to go to. In fact, only a few of the members know where it is.We do have two Chinese sisters come to our branch. But their husbands are foreigners who joined the church overseas, so they are allowed to attend. One of these two sisters was baptized here last year. The other is still investigating.

Oh, and some other cities might have a group of members that meet together. For instance, Jinan and has a group of BYU teachers too. Linyi used to have a group of about 8 YSA. But as far I know, they've all returned to the USA. Zibo has one member, who goes to Jinan for meetings. Weifang used to have a couple who used to stay the weekend at my place here in Qingdao so they could go to church, but they've recently returned to America.

Hi, My son is going to Jimei University was granted a 2-month scholarship study tour to Xiamen this summer but he's worried that he might not be able to attend church services during his stay there. I understand there's neither ward nor branch in Xiamen, but does anyone know if there is at least a group of LDS members who meet regularly for sunday service?

I don't have an answer about Xiamen, but the small groups are usually organized under the Districts (in China it's Shanghai and Beijing both that have districts, if I remember correctly). So it would be useful to maybe find someone in one of those branches who can connect you with church leadership for the districts and they would know if there is a group meeting in Xiamen. Shanghai is likely the one for that area.

Thank you maverick for the help. I found some meetinghouse locations in Beijing from the lds.org along with the contact persons' email add. I just hope they know of a group or a district in xiamen who meets regularly so my son would not have to decline the scholarship offer. We just can't let him miss church. Thank you again for the help

Good luck. I'm Mark from the first comment, but with a different signature, and if nothing works out post back here and I'll see if I have any old email addresses also. The district president or leadership should definitely know if there is a group, or can tell your son what options are available.

Hi Mark! I thought I saw the email add of the contact persons in the lds.org but I was mistaken. Only the names of the bishops/branch presidents are there. I have also written the said site to ask for an address or contact person in Xiamen but I haven't received any feedback yet. I have not made any progress in my search so far. If you can give me the old e-mail addresses of branch presidents you know, it would be a great help. Sorry if I am being a bother but we are from the Philippines and we just don't know who or where to go to obtain the information we need. Any information you or anyone can give will be highly appreciated.

I too, have been trying to find what I can through browsing the net and messaging LDS websites that might have anything about the church in Xiamen.

I have found a FAQ portion last night from mormonsandchina.org site where my email will be directed to a branch president in Beijing. I have already sent an e-mail to the said add but is still waiting for the reply.

Purpose and Introduction

Most of the people of the world do not have access to Church representatives or worship services in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Besides countries that do not have an official Church presence with millions of inhabitants, nations like India and Nigeria have vast areas not penetrated by the Gospel yet have the Church established elsewhere. I will provide lists of cities from around the world by country with over 100,000 people that do not have missionaries or at least one congregation in them. For countries where the Church has been well established, I will provide a list of the 10 largest cities which do not have the Church's presence in them. In some countries, data is not available for villages and cities below a certain population. In that case, I will not be able to generate a list of at least 10 cities. Some of the city populations might be out of date due to the difficulty of gathering data from unstable areas of the world. The majority of the data I will use to compile these lists can be found at http://www.citypopulation.de/cities.html . If you have any information about a city opening for missionary work or receiving its first branch, please leave your comment with the corresponding country.

Countries listed in capital letters do not have a current congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or missionaries from the Church in any of the cities in the country.

Cites Defined

A problem I have come across making these lists is that many cities without an organized Church unit or missionaries are not far away from cities which do have a congregation or missionaries. I have addressed this problem by considering cities in developed countries over 10 miles away from any other city with a Church unit as not having the presence of the Church in it. Granted many strong members can reside in these cities along with missionaries visiting them, but I want to articulate the opportunity for people not in the Church to attend Church meetings and learn about the Gospel. If people live over 10 miles away from a meetinghouse or where missionaries work and reside, it makes it much less likely and more difficult for them to join the Church. As for developing or undeveloped countries, I have used a buffer of five miles instead of 10 miles since many travel on foot or bicycle to attend Church meetings.

Map Explanation

For those of you who are not familar with my map symbology, green squares signify branches and yellow squares signify wards. A few maps might have districts and stakes represented by green and yellow squares and I will make it clear if that is the case.

About Me

My interest in researching the growth of the LDS Church began in 2002. I began this blog in late 2007 to provide a forum to discuss LDS growth developments and share information. I have also worked for The Cumorah Foundation since 2009 providing research assistance and resource development on LDS growth and missionary work. Since this time I have been interviewed by various media organizations and have co-authored with David Stewart our comprehensive work Reaching the Nations: International Church Growth Almanac: 2014 Edition. I have a masters degree in psychology and a doctorate degree in clinical psychology.